VoterTide Alerts goes live, with free updates for up to three candidates

VoterTide, an Omaha-based social media monitoring and intelligence company for politics, today announced the release of VoterTide Alerts(right), a free mobile alerts service designed to notify users of news as it’s breaking in social media.

VoterTide tracks some 1,800 political candidates and officer holders, and users can receive free updates on up to three of those political figures through the rest of the current election cycle. VoterTide Pro, the company’s paid offering, enables users to track additional politicians.

When we covered VoterTide Alerts in February, VoterTide co-founder Jimmy Winter likened it to Google Alerts for social media. VoterTide Alerts aims to identify who has the biggest online voice share, generating news deemed important by the people, not just the media.

VoterTide Alerts has been in development for about five months and in beta testing since February, Winter said. He said the service received high marks from beta testers, a group that included a number of people on Capitol Hill.

“We’ve got several staffers in D.C., actually in Congress, using it now,” Winter said. “The feedback’s been great. I mean, they’re able to find out about news kind of before it breaks, and they can just get on top of it before anybody else can.”

By next Monday, Winter said, VoterTide will have 12 full-time employees, including a growing presence in Washington, D.C. With Alerts for candidates now live, Winter said VoterTide’s focus will shift to enabling similar notifications for specific issues and topics.

Along with news of today’s launch, VoterTide shared some statistical findings from the last few months.

The top 10 political entities (excluding President Barack Obama and presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney) with the biggest online voice share and influence on VoterTide’s “Social Media Index” since January 1, 2012 are: